Broadcast and many Cable television stations rely on advertising revenue in the form of commercial airtime to remain profitable. The cost, to an advertiser, for an advertisement spot during a commercial segment, or pod, is dependent on several factors, including time of day, particular show, viewership numbers, etc. Thus, commercials showing during popular shows are more expensive, since in theory more people would view those commercials at one time. Consequently, television networks are very motivated to show a large viewership for each show in order to maximize revenue from each advertisement spot. Because of this, advertisers and networks have agreed to use a standardized methodology for calculating viewership known as Nielsen Ratings.
The Nielsen Ratings are based on tracking the viewing habits of several thousand representative households. However, the ratings only indicate that the television is on, and which channel participants have the television tuned to not, necessarily, whether anyone is watching.
For many people, commercial pods are prime time for getting a snack. It has always been accepted that the numbers provided by the ratings system have an inherent degree of error due to viewers wandering away from the television during commercial breaks. Even with this built-in inaccuracy, this method has generally worked well in the past. At least advertisers could console themselves that even though a viewer may not be watching the commercial, they probably would still hear it.
With the advent of devices such as TIVO® and Digital Video Recorders (DVR), the accuracy of ratings numbers have become even more suspect. Devices such as TIVO® and DVRs allow users to record shows ahead of time and view at a later time or date. In addition, these devices allow users to rewind and fast-forward through “live broadcasts”, albeit with a slight delay. These two features, however, also allow users to avoid watching commercials. Consequently, the viewership numbers of a show no longer correlate as well to the number of possible consumers reached by commercials aired during that show. Now advertisers can no longer rely on viewers at least listening to the commercials even if they are not watching them.
Therefore, there is a need to compel viewers to watch commercials and a method to track the number of viewers watching the commercials more accurately. A prior art method attempting to address this need was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,524 issued to Matheny et al. In the Matheny et al. system, an incentive to watch television commercials is provided by presenting the viewer with awards if trivia questions displayed on screen are answered. The trivia questions appear on the television and thus viewers are motivated to watch the episode and commercials without channel surfing or fast-forwarding.
In U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006-0070095 A1 to Philip Steven Newton, et al., an apparatus and method are disclosed for preventing a viewer from switching a television channel during a commercial pod. While this will prevent “channel surfing” during commercials, it runs the real risk of annoying a majority of television viewers. Additionally, the Newton et al. apparatus would need to be incorporated, during manufacture, into television set-top boxes, televisions sets, or Cable/Satellite receivers if the Newton apparatus is to be affective.
Therefore, a better method for increasing viewership of commercials is needed that would induce, but not force, viewers to watch commercials.